HTC sales slide in May, Q2 revenue guidance cut by 13%

After reporting six consecutive months of record revenue in 2011, HTC has fallen on hard times. Despite the launch of it’s latest flagship smartphone, the One X, the Taiwanese manufacturer’s consolidated sales for May were down roughly $1 billion, or 26.13% from the same month a year earlier. Due to a lower than expected sales in Europe and the U.S. and a one-time write off of last year’s inventory, HTC on Wednesday cut its second quarter revenue target by 13.3% to $3.03 billion. The company originally forecast that its revenue in the second quarter would reach $3.5 billion, an increase from $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

It might not all be bad news, however. Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley offered the following thoughts in a note to investors on Wednesday: “While our checks indicated positive sales trends for HTC’s new One series smartphones, overall weaker sales in Europe, a charge to clear older inventory, and U.S. Customs delays led to softer Q2 sales. With our checks indicating strong initial HTC EVO sales at Sprint, we anticipate an improving One Series sales mix in Q3/12 that should have a positive impact to gross and operating margins.”

Walkley lowered his guidance as a result of HTC’s new forecast, however he maintains a Buy rating on HTC stock with a price target of NT$503. “Due to our lowered HTC smartphone estimates for 2012 and 2013 primarily for the Europe market, we are lowering our 2012 EPS estimate from NT$44.90 to NT$34.75 and our 2013 estimate from NT$55.10 to NT$50.32.”